Three of the largest operators of online loyalty programs in the UK have just established the industry’s first standard-setting body.
Founder members of the not-for-profit organisation ‘The Loyalty Association’ include RPoints, MutualPoints and GreasyPalm, with approximately four million program members between them.
The founders have collaborated with affiliate networks in drawing up a code of practice which is binding on members who offer points, cashback or gift reward schemes. In addition to being a resource for advice and guidance, The Loyalty Association will promote the benefits of loyalty programs to retailers and networks via research, a website and events.
The code of practice, which is designed to establish levels of service which can be expected by both users and clients, stipulates amongst other things that:
- Members must adhere to the current Data Protection Act and applicable EU directives
- Information about the true value and nature of rewards and redemption procedure isn’t misleading and that terms are clear
- Members must demonstrate they have a reliable system in place for monitoring, tracking and delivering rewards to users
- Members will take responsibility for potential fraudulent activity carried out by users
- Members must carry out an annual audit of their systems and adhere to the code of practice and SLAs of the Association
Its first president is Neil Durrant and its chairman is Richard Yendall.
Richard Yendall, chairman at the Online Loyalty Association, said: “Online affiliate loyalty marketing is fast growing and our priority is that quality keeps up, for everyone’s benefit. It’s a challenging time for the industry but by taking this positive step we aim to improve perceptions and accelerate the industry’s growth.”
Notes to editors
The Loyalty Association was founded in November 2007. It aims to become a respected non-profit representative body for the UK’s online and associated loyalty and cash-back industry.
It is working towards increasing the standards of businesses operating in the loyalty / cash-back marketplace, improving the level of service offered by such businesses to their clients and users alike and generating mutually beneficial and ongoing partnerships between clients (merchants, affiliate networks, agencies and suppliers) and businesses operating in the marketplace.
The Loyalty Association members pay a subscription fee and are entitled to guidance and representation from the Association in return for adherence to its code of practice.
Comments?
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
I am sure we have all done it. Had one too many and thought we could do the Tom Cruise thing from the film Cocktail.
Well you can now work on your technique with our range of coctail shakers
Premier Cookware can bring that extra piece of class to your Christmas or New Year party.
One of the best sellers on site this week is the humble Cocktail Shaker. Especially our traditional look Conical Shape Cocktail Shaker.
We have a just for fun totallyshoes affiliate comp to get you going.
We have a free pair of shoes up for grabs (winners choice) in our just for fun competition. All we want to know is who is Chuck Taylor and which brand is he associated with. Send answers to brian at affiliateprogramadvice .com
(subject line competition) Make sure you send me your affiliate ID.
Winner will be chosen 30th November. Thats just 3 days away folks! Shoes dispatched first week in December 07
Plus we have a huge range of creatives available now, just log in to see them.
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
TotallyShoes.co.uk stock only the top shoe brands in the UK and offer the fastest dispatch you’ll find anywhere on the Internet! ALL ORDERS placed before 4pm weekdays are dispatched the SAME DAY, meaning in the majority of cases, the customer will receive your shoes the VERY NEXT working day.
Why Promote TotallyShoes?
A huge 10% commission and 90 day cookie period
Dedicated affiliate manager
Full product feed.
Validation of sales is automatic 14 days down from 21!
What do TotallyShoes offer?
Extremely competitive pricing.
Top shoe brands, Skechers, Converse, Dr Martens
100% In Stock Guarantee, meaning no disappointed customers.
FREE SHIPPING (within the UK). Increasing your conversion rates.
Fast Dispatch. Orders made before 4pm weekdays will be dispatched the SAME DAY! in the vast majority of cases orders arrive the very next working day.
FREE Returns Policy - Don’t like the shoe you’ve received for any reason? Wrong size? No problem. Print and fill in a simple, prepaid returns label.
Who Buys From TotallyShoes?
Age group 18 to 35
65% of customers are currently women
Mums buying shoes for their children
Dr Martens shoes and boots are popular with building workers and laborers
PPC Policy
TotallyShoes.co.uk operate an open PPC policy. Use of the TotallyShoes name and misspellings is permitted BUT we encourage you to use product and brand specific key phrases.
Stuck For Ideas?
Do you think that TotallyShoes.co.uk looks like a great affiliate program and you would like to promote it? Not sure where to start.
I have a list of 400 unregistered niche/shoe related domain names, any of which would be a great starting point for a blog website or PPC landing page.
I have had a number of policy change emails, t&c changes and ‘we have stopped paying commission on XYZ’ emails. Now this is nothing new and this is to be expected from time to time.
My comment here that I want these merchants/networks to read is that think about your timing.
Networks, don’t your merchants have to give a minimum notice period before making changes to their program that will affect affiliate’s revenues? Could an employer reduce his staff’s pay with just 24 hours notice?
Also merchants and networks, timing of important emails - don’t send them after 6pm on a Friday. Many affiliates don’t work the silly hours that you might think. If all affiliates were Monday to Friday people there would be a huge backlash almost every Monday against one merchant or another.
Both Play.com (affiliatewindow) and Game (buy.at) have announced the usage of flash video to trail their products today.
But there is a significant difference between the two.
Affiliate window and Play.com have intergrated the video into affiliate friendly banners. Unfortunatly there are only 3 banners at this time and just one size - but this is a good start.
Game on the other hand have shown affiliates their trailers and encouraged affiliate to use them, trailers can greatly increase conversions after all. BUT they have neglected to point out that on the trailer there is a direct link to GAME.
Buy.at do assure that this will be addressed soon. In the meantime I realise that this link can be masked using CSS, so if anyone can provide the code for this please post a comment.
Now will there be a column od datafeeds for video code this time next year…..
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
I made a sale £1.68 commission. Oooh I can retire.
But OK stats fans - what does that sale mean.
I have lost money (so far)
Date
Imp.
Clicks
CTR (%)
Avg. CPC ($)
Avg. CPM ($)
Spent ($
11/11/2007
17274
42
0.24
0.02
0.06
1.00
11/09/2007
20573
59
0.29
0.02
0.04
0.91
11/08/2007
48361
170
0.35
0.01
0.05
2.24
11/07/2007
1862
11
0.59
0.04
0.24
0.45
11/06/2007
11125
10
0.09
0.02
0.02
0.17
Ok so totting up the spend we see that I have spend $4.77 and made £1.68
Converting $ to £ using xe.com that works out at about £2.31 - a grand loss of 63 pence.
Althought this is a very small trial I believe that it shows that facebook ads may have potential.
As I am PPC ing direct to merchant I am actually missing out on the possibility of using Facebook to build mailing lists through competitions and freebies (I am doing this trial next)
Will keep you posted.
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
They have been running for one day now and I thought I would let you know how I am getting on.
I chose a merchant that I don’t usually promote, with a highish commission and conversion rate. I am linking to them directly (in accordance with their ppc policy).
The first thing that struck me about the facebook ads is the ability to be very specific in your demographic.
In addition to choosing your country (and geographical region), you can chose age range, interests, educational status, political views and marital status.
In addition for your selection, you can see how many facebook members there are. So even if you didn’t want to place an advert it is a great source of interest regarding Facebook Demographics.
Ok. I have heard bad things about the Facebook Fliers and their conversion rates, these are just personal anecdotes so may reflect the experience of the many. I decided to keep the campaign small.
Looking at $5 a day and $0.10 maximum click spend, here is what my first day looked like.
Date
Imp.
Clicks
CTR (%)
Avg. CPC ($)
Avg. CPM ($)
Spent ($)
11/06/2007
11125
10
0.09
0.02
0.02
0.17
(Facebook’s calendar seems to be a day behind)
Oooh a massive 10 clicks from over 11,000 impressions. I am glad that I am not running a CPM campaign.
Nice to see the click spend is less than a penny a click though. I am sure that this will go up a lot as the ads get more popular with advertisers.
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
It only costs a few quid to register the .co.uk and the .com domain name for your product / service etc.
Classic example.
Dance of The Goblins. The book has been in print for 2 years, then a pitch is to be made on Dragons’ Den for finance for a Film version of said book.
The domain names (.co.uk and .com) were both registered just last week (about the sort of time that the Dragons’ Den previews would have gone live on the BBC website). So it looks like there might be a couple of squatters. There might be a hoo haa over the ownership of the domains and the book author may be just in reclaiming them - but this situation should never have been. Got a product or company name Register a Domain Name!!!
Getting on Dragons’ Den is HUGE exposure (3.2 million viewers) whether you get the money or not DO NOT WASTE IT. Register your domain name.
I can see that there might be hundreds of people interested in the book and would most likely buy it if the pitch of the story is good enough, so what is the first thing they will do? Google or type in the (domain) name. By owning the domain name and getting a site (however small) in the SERPS you are nearly guaranteed to get top listing for a company or product name that is unique to you.
Ok so has the message gotten through yet?
What do you do?
Go on national TV and waste an opportunity to get loads of ‘free’ publicity for your brand?
It will take 5 minutes of your time through a service like 123reg
Or if you are a complete technophobe have a word with me and I can fix you up with the domain name and a minisite to promote your brand. Making sure that you don’t waste this type of huge exposure, even if Theo Paphitis thinks it is as useful as “Knickers on a Kipper”!
(This is part 2 of a rant from last year where exactly the same thing was happening.)
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
